This weekend, the United States paused its participation in an organization that most Canadians have likely never heard of: the Permanent Joint Board on Defence. Established in 1940, following U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s pledge that the U.S. would defend Canada if it were attacked, and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s promise that “enemy forces should not be able to pursue their way, either by land, sea or air to the United States across Canadian territory,” the board met some 42 times during the Second World War and most recently convened every six months — until now.
Today, Canada stands accused of violating Mackenzie King’s oath. In a post on X, U.S. Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby wrote, “A strong Canada that prioritizes hard power over rhetoric benefits us all. Unfortunately, Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments.”
In other words, Canada is not maintaining a strong enough military to keep adversaries out of America’s backyard — and it is saying things Washington does not want to hear. Colby pointedly included a link to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, in which Carney called on middle powers to “live the truth” instead of pining for the old-world order, by banding together in the face of hostile or indifferent superpowers — including, by implication, the United States.
At the time, Carney’s speech rallied Canadians, who were fed up with U.S. President Donald Trump’s constantly changing tariffs and threats about making Canada a 51st state. It also got the world’s attention, crowning Carney as the leader of the anti-Trump faction, notably the European countries that have similarly lost patience with Trump’s bluster about taking over Greenland while he exhibits a comparatively friendly attitude toward Russia.
Since then, Carney has stuck plenty of other sticks in Trump’s eye, including his recent appearance at the European Political Community in Yerevan, Armenia — a first for a non-European leader. Retired Vice-Admiral Mark Norman is therefore not surprised at the latest U.S. response. “This is politically motivated and fits perfectly into the ongoing tactics of the current administration to undermine Canada in as many ways as possible,” he told National Post.
Norman adds that it puts the Canadian government in a tough spot. “If they are honest about it, it sounds like yet another painful hit they couldn’t manage.” To minimize the political impact, he says, Ottawa will downplay the significance of the historical arrangement — but it does so at its peril.
Like it or not, Canada’s defence is geographically wedded to that of the U.S. And there are far bigger joint commitments than this board that must be maintained. Chief among those is the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), responsible for the shared monitoring and defence of North American airspace and maritime approaches, detecting and tracking potential aerospace and ballistic threats. While enshrined in a treaty, its existence is not guaranteed, especially given Trump’s affinity for executive orders.
